ABERDEEN TO STONEHAVEN. 205 



Crowds used to gather round the coach in Perth to 

 hear him give " The girl I left behind me" and " The 

 days when we went gipsying ;" and he threw such in- 

 tense feeling into " Rory O'More," or, as his au- 

 dience observed, "played it with all the gestures'* 

 that, long after he became a landlord at Stirling, he 

 went by no other name. Alick Cook was a smart 

 little light-weight, and went about the coach like a 

 needle. He was also a great cock-fighter, and at 

 every thing in the ring. The Shadow ran several 

 races in his name ; and he was generally looked upon 

 as a sort of Racing Calendar guard; well up in the 

 likely starters for the St. Leger, and more especially 

 in the moves of the green and yellow jacket of 

 Barnton. 



The birthday of the Defiance was kept with great 

 state at one of the towns on the road, and the pro- 

 prietors and their friends feasted out of the receipts. 

 On one occasion the coach was dressed up with 

 evergreens, and the horses in flowers and streamers. 

 "Alick Cook, music for anniversary, 1," was 

 always an item on the debit side of the accounts for 

 that month. The Captain invariably drove the coach 

 on the dinner-day in a scarlet coat, and at night 

 he was ready with his " Trotaway" song respecting 

 the mare, who was on her legs like the shot of a pis- 

 tol, and beat the bullet cleverly when she was there. 

 The* singer nearly lost his life after one of those fes- 

 tive evenings. He had not become habituated to 

 gas in his bedroom, and on retiring to rest at Forfar 



